


Dust of the Land

by pantswarrior



Category: Shadow of the Colossus
Genre: Community: areyougame, Gen, Scenery Porn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-02
Updated: 2012-01-02
Packaged: 2017-10-28 17:11:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/310146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pantswarrior/pseuds/pantswarrior
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Perhaps the land is forbidden because it consumes those who dare to seek it out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dust of the Land

His focus was to be on his task. No more, no less. He would destroy the avatars of the temple idols, and win the aid of the being called Dormin. Nothing else mattered.

Certainly his appearance mattered not at all. A jolt of surprise flickered through him as he raised his arm, brushing a trickle of sweat from his face, and spotted the trails of dust, dark plastered over sun-darkened skin everywhere that his sleeves and wrappings - now ragged and filthy - did not cover. This was to be expected after so many battles. He had been in the forbidden land for... days? Weeks? He had no way of knowing. All that time, he had been struggling against those beasts, those living mountains - or riding through the land.

He had not taken much note of it at first, except as much attention was required to navigate his way to the creatures it had been given to him to slay. (Ominously, he had learned early on that he need not pay enough attention to be able to navigate a return path.) It looked little different than the land he'd traveled through on his journey, which but for the desolation looked little different from his homeland. Aside from the narrow walkway leading from the cliffs beyond, there was nothing to mark a beginning or end, no perceptible border beyond his ability to make the climb or survive the descent. The forbidden land was vast, infinite; were he one of the soaring birds, he thought, as a shadow passing prompted him to look up - if he were a bird, he might fly his whole life in any direction, only to perish of age before learning what lay beyond.

If there was a beyond. The longer he spent in this land, the more he had begun to wonder if he would ever leave.

He would not leave before he was finished, of course. And he had learned this land, to a point; he was near to a forest now, and he recalled having heard the sound of rushing water within earlier. He nudged his foot into Agro's side; his task would not vanish if he took a moment to bathe.

Agro slowed as they entered the shade of the trees, the better to navigate the uneven ground between the tall, thin trunks. Again there was the sound of water, behind the crackle of old dry leaves beneath Agro's hooves. The path was rough enough that he dismounted, patting Agro on the neck as he followed the noise on his own two feet.

As he had suspected, there was a stream winding through the area, but slowly - almost a pool rather than a stream. Strewn with leaves, oozing black mud through the surrounding area, it would serve him well enough, and he waded in knee-deep, to where the water was deeper and clearer. Dipping his hands in the water, letting it slide in cleansing trickles down his arms as he raised them, he paused to take in the forest.

Light itself seemed different in this land; beyond acting as his guide, directing him through the gleam of his sword, it seemed brighter, casting shadows more deeply, changing within a pace as the clouds shifted above. The difference seemed all that much more obvious here in the forest, where distinct beams shone down like beacons through the leaves above, lighting only small patches of earth beneath. He turned, following the streams of light that seemed to mark a path through the trees... and he caught his breath. Bathed in the sun was a structure in the midst of the wood, one of the small temples at which he had offered prayers. Though he could not have picked out how it might differ from any other of the temples he had encountered, in the brilliant sunlight, set apart from the shade the trees offered all about, it appeared to glow.

His arms dropped slowly to his sides, and he waded further into the forest, transfixed by the sight, until his hands could reach out and touch the soft green moss and the supple vines that had found a home upon the smooth golden stone. Motes of dust and pollen danced in the air, illuminated by the sun, a nearly blinding aura. If he had not been so moved elsewhere, in this place he could not have helped but drop to his knees to pray.

He lifted his head again after long moments, when he heard a louder splash amidst the water sounds behind him, and galloping hooves. He rose again to greet Agro, and something occurred to him.

The sound of water he had heard could not have come from such a small, slow stream as he had found.

Curious, he tilted his head to listen, and stepped away from the temple to explore the depths of the forest. The sound of water was still further in, confused somewhat by the similar sound of leaves both dead and living rustling in the wind, and he followed it through until he spotted light beyond the trees, as they gave way to... something. Plains, perhaps, or only a large clearing, but the trees were growing thinner and more sparse.

His pace slowed, and Agro snorted anxiously, tossing his head behind him, as it became clear what they approached. They had come to the edge of a cliff, dropping off suddenly, but not to the sea or a deep ravine as had been the usual in the forbidden land. This cliff was just as impassable due to the scale and slope, yes - but beneath, there was what appeared to be a large lake, its clear water reflecting the blue of the sky, surrounded by greenery. In the midst of the lake was a small island, upon which grew an almost impossibly large tree. Off to his right, he could see that the ground sloped downward towards the lake in a gradual, gentle decline rather than the harsh dropoffs that seemed to dominate the area.

...Which meant that he could reach that lake. Turning, he mounted Agro again, turning the horse to follow the edge of the cliff until he found a way out of the forest, into a narrow, rocky crevasse.

The path arced gracefully through the stone, echoing back the sound of water and wind and every beat of Agro's hooves upon the rock, until they emerged into a plain once again, the ground spreading out before them to display rocky soil where little grew besides small, leafless shrubs and thin grasses. The air was dry here, each gallop kicking up dust in the wake of their travels, and he bid Agro to follow the curvature of the mountains.

What he found was not the lake he had been seeking, but a desert, wide and pale, the gently drifted landscape broken by strange structures, stone ruins, jutting out from the sand as if piercing the skin. He turned Agro aside, steering him through a large, curious arch made of brick and now half buried like the skeleton of an ancient, broken beast. In fact, he thought, perhaps that was exactly what it was...

The sand swirled around them, stinging against his face, and he urged Agro on. They could not stay. Nothing could live here.

How could such a place even exist?

It should not have been possible, seeking a lake and finding a desert instead. But this whole land was uncanny. A gust of wind sent sand flying, blocking out his vision and yet offering no protection from the sun's rays that seemed to pour down from the sky, spilling over and scalding him. A sense of oppression was welling up in his throat, and he slapped the reins against Agro's neck, driving him harder. Dunes and mountains and eerie stone protrusions flew past, unearthly and barely visible in the sandstorm; it could not go on forever, he told himself.

When the light ceased to glare off the grains of sand that flew past them, he found that they had come to another grassland, the greenery broken by outcroppings and plateaus. He pulled Agro's reins, slowing their pace, as he surveyed what lay before them. Though it bore similarities to the area around the great temple, he thought this land was new, unfamiliar. And then, too - it smelled of the sea. Far off in the distance, he could hear waves crashing.

Yet the land was empty, devoid of all life and movement but the grass that flattened with a gust of breeze - and Agro and himself. For all that the land seemed to go on forever, in every direction he looked, he suddenly felt... trapped.

Just overhead, there was a fluttering, and he looked up to see a hawk swoop past, not an armspan above his head.

Perhaps it was the urge for freedom, or perhaps the curse upon this land was the sort that would drive a man mad; whatever the reason, he kicked his heels into Agro's sides, and set him to a gallop, following the hawk.

The hawk wheeled overhead, circling back and then returning to its path before he could turn Agro aside, as if teasing him. As if urging him to keep up - he was too slow, though Agro galloped through the land as swiftly as any horse had ever run. Soon the bird was joined by its peers, dipping and rising and weaving among each other in an elaborate ceremony as they led him on a chase across the foothills and off towards the coast, showing him past white stones and ruined temples and black lizards frantically skittering away from their passing. His heart pounded louder and faster than Agro's footfalls on dirt and stone, yet Agro held the course steady, knowing instinctively what his rider required of him.

At last the land gave way ahead of them, dropping out of view. The rocky, jagged horizons were replaced by a misty haze, and the crashing of waves grew louder; they had come to the edge of the earth, it seemed, but beyond lay endless ocean, stretching out as far as the eye could see, and no doubt further still. ...What lay beyond those oceans, he wondered? Was there another world still? Did anything still exist that was _not_ this forbidden land?

It was Agro whose senses remained, and he reared up with a startled cry, stopping short and backing up from the edge of the cliff when his rider failed to pull back on the reins.

The hawk and its allies flew on, heedless of the earthbound creatures they left behind as they soared out over the ocean. He stared after them, absently soothing Agro with touch and voice, until they had disappeared among the mists and the clouds. Where did they go, when they went...?

At last he turned his eyes back towards land with a sigh - which was stifled when his eyes widened in surprise. In all the barrenness of the land, the hawks had led them to a large, solid tree growing almost on top of the steep cliff, defying the rocky soil and the steep drop to seawater at its side to flourish. Its roots were thick and strong; its branches were lush and beautiful, and heavy-laden with fruit.

Cursed though the land may have been, it seemed that it was willing to care for those whom it had consumed.

He scaled the tree easily, gripping the thick moss that seemed so soft on weapon-calloused hands, squinting through the shifting patterns of light and shadow to take aim at his targets. Beneath the tree, he reclined on the loose mounds of earth and grass gathered around the roots, breaking off a portion of his harvest and holding it up for Agro, who accepted it from his fingertips.

The hawks had come back, he realized, or more had taken their place. Just off the coast, their cries echoed over the cliffs as they wove together an airborne dance, diving back through the branches of the tree from time to time - as if inviting him to join them. He was, after all, like themselves, like the lizards and the turtles and the colossi and even the trees and the stones: little more than another feature of this world they inhabited.

The thin, sweet juice of the ripe fruit trickled to the edge of his chin before he could wipe it away, cutting a path through the dust of the land - a thin coat of grime which remained, forgotten, as he climbed to Agro's back once more. He had something to accomplish; this time, he remembered to raise his sword.


End file.
